Rutkowski and Moser lead Pirates in Big East Championships

Staff Writer

29 Oct 2017

The Seton Hall men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Big East Championships on Saturday morning in Kenosha, Wis. Taking on the best competition the conference has to offer, the women placed eighth out of the 10 competing schools, while the men settled for ninth out of nine.

Christiana Rutkowski led the way for the women finishing 34th out of a field of 89 runners. Rutkowski had previously listed to The Setonian a top 25 finish in the Big East Championships as a personal goal, and only missed that mark by 14 seconds, finishing in 21:47.4.

Photo via SHU Athletics

Teammate Emily Johnson had the next best finish among the Pirates, with a time of 23:17.0. Kiley Britten, a junior, was the third Pirate female to finish. Her overall position was 67th, with a time of 23:29.5. Rounding out the team scoring for the Pirates were sisters Olivia and Emily Hernandez, with Olivia coming in at a time of 23:42.2, grabbing her 71st place, while Emily finished in 24:04.1 which gave her 75th place.

Runners from Villanova and Providence dominated the competition, as both schools had four runners in the top 10. The Pirates total team time of 1:56:20.2 was 13 minutes behind the pack-leading Wildcats.

The Seton Hall men finished ninth with a total time of 2:13:49.3, within touching distance of both eighth place finisher Xavier and seventh place finisher Creighton. Leading the way for the Hall was Jared Moser who finished in 36th place with an 8K time of 25:59.9. Behind him was senior Bryant Cordova, whose time of 26:33.4 gave him 54th place in his final Big East Championship. The third individual to finish for the Pirates was Ricky Stephens, with a time of 26:54.9. Stephens placed 63rd overall.

With the two teams’ seasons coming to an end, the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional on Nov. 10 offers another chance for the teams to finish what has been a memorable season on a high.

Robert Musantry can be reached at robert.musantry@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @rfmusantry.